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hi everyone this is Pivot from New York
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Magazine and the VOX media podcast
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Network I'm Cara swisser and tell me
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you're abusing ketamine without telling
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me you're abusing ketamine Cara I am
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only bereft that Jonathan had to be
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there to witness that Jonathan Ross
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sorin uh did you see that part our
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friend our Canadian he called our
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Canadian friend Jonathan his and Andrew
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is like I'm Andrew oh my God I could see
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that he said you're my good friend
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Jonathan and I was thinking why did he
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think Jonathan H the only sort of Jewish
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sounding name he could think of I I
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don't even know what he was doing there
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well if this if that whole um dialogue
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cemented or proved anything it is that
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in fact Andrew Ros sorin is Canadian
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one he was on stage the entire time
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unarmed we can talk about it more in a
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minute but go ahead he was on stage the
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entire time both unarmed and had health
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insurance Canadian yeah and you know how
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you get a Canadian to apologize how you
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step on his foot
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and that has some relevance here yeah
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yeah which we'll get to Andrew felt bad
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it was like a the way Andrew felt I
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don't know if he felt bad for the
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audience he didn't know what to say
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we're going to go right to our first
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story as we were talking about Elon Musk
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gave quite a performance at the New York
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Times dealbook Summit on Wednesday which
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was chalk full of really good interviews
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in a lengthy conversation with Jonathan
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Ross sorin also known as Andrew Elon
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addressed numerous topics uh ranging
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from from his anti-semitic comments to
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his grudge against Biden and waited on
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open AI aliens monkeys and more and
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something about Earth I don't quite
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understand what that was about and when
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they apologized for that anti-semitic
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tweet it was a comment directed at X's
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advertisers that caused the most chaos
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let's listen you don't want them to
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advertise no what do you
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mean if somebody's going to try to
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Blackmail me with advertising blackmail
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with money go [ __ ]
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yourself
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but go [ __ ]
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yourself is that
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clear I hope it is hey Bob impressed on
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what it would mean for his company this
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is what he said tell it to Earth uh you
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know you have to watch this in a whole
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because it's the entire thing is bizarre
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not just this um his diet tribe against
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uh not being invited to a Biden comab um
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everything was so strange tell it to
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Earth what did you think as you watch
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this uh the shout out to was to Bob Iger
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by the way who earlier who was in the
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audience who earlier in the day asked
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about when asked about Elon and
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advertising on next said that the
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association was not necessarily A
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positive one let me have some other
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highlights if we want to call them that
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elon's issues with Biden go back to
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Tesla getting excluded from this White
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House Event on electric vehicles he
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shortly after Biden took office he said
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it wasn't fair um he's he's obviously
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hurting from it um he said I have done
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more for the environment than any other
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person on earth when talking about
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electric vehicles sales Nikki Haley uh
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was dismissed as Pro censorship
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candidate more on her later open AI
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should be renamed super closed source
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for maximum profit AI haha Scott please
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go ahead I was on a plane watching it uh
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last night I came home from Miami and I
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found it difficult to
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watch um you know I think the most
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generous thing you could say is it was
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an
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intense uh bout of jet lag but there's
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something going on here and
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I of course went to chat GPT and I typed
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in what are the symptoms of a narcissist
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having a breakdown and it came back with
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intense rage and anger blame shifting
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emotional
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disregulation paranoia depression and
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anxiety manipulative behaviors isolation
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self-destructive behaviors increased
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sensitivity to criticism and breakdown
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of relationships I mean his statements
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were so ridiculous Cara do you realize
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that 497 of the Fortune 500 uh companies
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in the United States are clearly
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blackmailing us because they refuse to
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advertise on our platform I know and
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then to to go after Disney and it's like
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it just the whole thing was just and to
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be that to be that profane and that
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aggressive and then to somehow threaten
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advertisers that the world will hold you
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accountable if Twitter goes down and
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then talking about I thought the most
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disturbing part is someone who raises
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boys I'm talking about as a 13-year-old
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just the incredible hardship and
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dysfunction he faced his answer or his
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response to this incredible abuse being
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the son of a model and a emerald Miner
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was the decision that to save Humanity
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by making us an interplanetary species I
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mean he's literally he's just like kind
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of [ __ ] lost his [ __ ] you know again
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his stands literally were like this was
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great he did told it like it was this is
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and then let me just say uh Linda yaker
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well it's it's it's really sad it's sad
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it's sad I don't feel sorry for him but
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it's sad to watch um he thinks he's
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great his clothes were strange like he
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was a he was dressed as a fighter pilot
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from World War II I guess yeah I did
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notice that I don't really know um which
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is fine he can wear whatever he wants
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but it just the whole the whole visual
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was weird he looked exhausted he looked
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unshaven um you know I thought Lindy
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yino did the worst job of any CEO in
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recent memory but he has managed to top
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it he bested her um two things Lind
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Linda Yer was in the audience she then I
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thought she must have been horrified but
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instead she put up a lengthy post on X
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afterwards I'm not going to read it in
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full because it was such it was so full
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of nonsense um and and enabling when it
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comes to advertising X's standing at a
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unique and amazing intersection of free
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speech and Main Street block that
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[ __ ] metaphor but okay I think she
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just got run over by by you know a truck
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essentially driven by Elon Musk um one
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was how do you think she's feeling today
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at that intersection um she is she is
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really a piece of work I got to say
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because she's not she seems nuts but she
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is obviously something else my
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understanding of Linda is that she was
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outstanding at her job she was a
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fantastic head of sales well I'll get to
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that and so you put someone as a head of
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sales for a
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traditional company with a lot of
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products a lot of outstanding ass sets
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to sell and then you show up and you're
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you're fighting a fire with a squirt gun
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and then you find out that the person
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who you're fighting the Fighting For
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Keeps putting gasoline in your squirt
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gun she doesn't have to go this far she
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can leave she cannot put out quotes like
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this this was shocking to me you gota I
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I can't decide whether she's she's part
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of the problem I there's been very few
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people who have who have gone from zero
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to Global awareness and then in in
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almost as fast a a time a period have
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absolutely destroyed the reputation now
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you could argue in this day and age it's
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just all about awareness and I think
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she'll be able to get another job but it
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just she just looks she looks totally
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flaccid in the face of a owner who
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doesn't respect anything about her role
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of CEO she's not she's not a CEO and all
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is again the analogy is she's the the
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circus clown following this elephant
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around scooping up his [ __ ] all the time
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yeah yeah it's you know she was also the
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subject of a not very flattering profile
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in The Hollywood Reporter by Kim Masters
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Wednesday where the writer Kim Masters
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spoke with unnamed former NBC colleagues
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the article quotes someone who said
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Linda let her ego get the best of her
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she thought she could control them it
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was a level of ego and huous uh you rely
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see um I thought it was a pretty Fair
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article others thought it was you know
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it was all unnamed sources but it was
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accurate it was I know her that's she
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was tough she's a tough and somewhat of
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a chaotic manager not that I care lots
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of bad people don't manage as well but
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she definitely is way in way over her
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skis but then continues to double down
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that that's the tragedy here is this
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sort of like fullscale embracing of this
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lunatic Behavior by Elon um why would
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any Advertiser stay with X at this point
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what you know he's done this before
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remember when he first got to the
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company he he insulted advertisers of
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that ad first advertising meeting don't
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advertise with us then he just hates
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anyone in control of his Destiny I guess
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or something the answer is no big
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advertisers going to um or no or no
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advertisers that wor is worried about
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their reputation I mean I I found his
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comments everyone wants to peer try and
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peer into his heart to really understand
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if he's an anti-semite and my view is if
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you say and do anti-semitic things and
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boom you're an
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anti-semite and so big companies that
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are correctly more sensitive to this
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sort of scrutiny and criticism as they
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should be are going to stay away from
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this thing because here's the thing
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there are about a billion other options
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to spend your money in term there's no
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shortage there are fewer ad dollars than
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there are platforms to spend those
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dollars on and Twitter is not
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particularly effective as many people
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are pointing out like why why take the
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risk it's never been known as as being a
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great product in terms of Roi the people
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or the the firms that will continue to
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advertise well because the outflow of
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advertising will be so
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dramatic logically speaking the ROI on
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the ad dollars that would remain should
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go up because there'll be fewer of them
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so if you're trying to sell an ear
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cleaning product I wouldn't be surprised
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and I hate to say this I wouldn't be
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surprised if the ROI on your ad dollars
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on Twitter that are going to be
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competing with much fewer dollars for
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eyeballs will actually go up so they'll
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probably see a bit of a
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bump uh the smaller advertisers in terms
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of Roi because it'll just be so few
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dollars chasing what is still a fairly
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large audience the ads have gotten
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really scary they've gotten really weird
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ear cleaning product is one of them that
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and that weird glue now you haven't been
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on it but there's a weird hand glue I
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don't really know what it is um uh you
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know what's H how is this going to end
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how is Earth what is Earth going to do
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because they you know from a business
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point of view X was last week the New
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York Times reported that X was in danger
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of losing $75 million earlier this week
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in advertising before the interview what
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you're in a room with marketers right
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now who are still on the platform what
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is being said here's my b to narcissism
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I've worked with 27 of the 100 CMOS of
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the Fortune 100 globally none of them
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would have anything to do with this
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platform right now none of them it's all
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let me get this the product's not that
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great you might be accused of enabling
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an
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anti-semite oh and if you decide to stop
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advertising he's going to say you're
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blackmailing them and and start
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threatening revenge against you I mean
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okay what is the upside here let's look
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at the upside versus the down there
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there are a few things that CMO can be
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fired for kind of UN harmoniously if you
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were to go on Twitter and spend some
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money and then it were to blow up in
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your face say your Pepsi your you know
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Diet Pepsi ad ends up next to a swastika
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and then a really decent question would
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be like you saw this [ __ ] happening and
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you made the conscious decision to put
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us at risk like this so no nobody you or
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me know knows is going to be advertising
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on this platform yeah it's a real it is
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a traffic accident speaking of f you
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know F the corner of free speech in
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Maine um I don't know
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this is just it was so bizarre I was in
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New York I didn't go you used to be
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friends with him do you know anyone that
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knows him I wasn't friends he was so he
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was so funny he was referring to Andrew
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as a friend Jonathan as a friend
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Jonathan's not his friend either um he
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thinks anyone who's nice to him as his
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friend it's really sad actually um
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Andrew and I are just reporters uh I
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liked him I certainly thought he was
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interesting um no I don't everyone just
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shakes their head everyone just shakes
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their head but I I do think on a on a
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meta level I do think the world is
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having a healthy immune response to Elon
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Musk yeah the audience certainly did you
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could hear it they were
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like but we don't have a president of
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the world we don't have one company that
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controls the world we have several that
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are Marching towards that but generally
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speaking over time the ecosystem doesn't
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like an invasive species and it starts
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to fight back against it yeah and when
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one person Aggregates this much power I
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think the world does have a healthy
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Earth it's called yeah it does have
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healthy immune gag reflex and I feel
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like we're starting to really choke on
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this
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guy
